


Nightmares of Another World

by DeckofDragons



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Female Frisk, Gen, References to No Mercy Route, post-true pacifist route
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2016-04-16
Packaged: 2018-05-30 17:48:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6434299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeckofDragons/pseuds/DeckofDragons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Frisk has nightmares of Chara going through the Underground and killing everyone she loves. When she finds out these nightmares may be true in another world she becomes determined to try to do something about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Shared Nightmares

Sans woke with a start from the usual nightmare about an evil Frisk going through the Underground and killing everyone. The dream had ended the way it almost always did, after countless failed attempts and deaths Frisk eventually killed him. Sans knew the real Frisk would never do this, she was too sweet and kind, and that this was a Frisk from another timeline. But the dream still always left him shaking and distraught.

Instead of laying around in his room like he usually did when he had one of these nightmares Sans dragged himself out of bed. Pulling on his blue jacket as he left his room intending to head for the kitchen for a snack or something. He now lived in a house with Papyrus, Toriel and Frisk up on the surface. Undyne and Alphys had their own place next door with Asgore living alone as their other neighbour. Mettaton had already become a famous popstar and had a place of his own somewhere else. They had all only been living on the surface for about a month and were mostly settled in by now.

As Sans was passing the door that led to Frisk’s room he heard a quiet sobbing coming from within. He paused wondering why the kid would be crying in the middle of the night like this. He knocked lightly on the door and the sobbing immediately stopped.

“Hey kid you okay?” he asked opening the door a crack.

“Sans?” Frisk’s small sad voice came from within.

“Yeah, what’s the matter kid?” he asked as he opened the door fully and let himself in gently closing the door behind him.

Frisk sat on her bed, her face was red from when she’d been sobbing into her hands just now. “Nothing’s the matter.” She sniffed as she tried unsuccessfully to wipe the tear stains off her face.

“Clearly something’s wrong, otherwise you wouldn’t have been crying. So come on now, out with it.”

“I just had a nightmare that’s all, I’ll be fine,” Frisk said as she turned her head to the side.

“You want me to go get Tori?” Sans asked thinking she might want her adoptive mother instead of him.

“No, Mom can’t know, no one can know. Everyone will hate me if they ever find out about the horrible things I do in my dreams,” Frisk said as tears started to leak from her eyes again.

Sans was still exhausted from his own nightmare and wanted nothing more than to go laze around somewhere but he couldn’t leave Frisk alone when she was so obviously upset. “It can’t be that bad, can it? They’re just dreams.”

“I know but… they feel so real and the things I do in them are really awful.”

“All right kid tell me about it, I’m all ears. Well except for the fact that I’m a skeleton and don’t actually have ears, but despite that I’m still listening,” Sans said as he sat at the foot of her bed.

“But I can’t tell you, you’ll be mad at me and think I’m a horrible person,” Frisk sobbed.

“I’m not gonna get mad at you or think you’re a horrible person just because of a dream,” Sans said thinking about his own nightmares involving Frisk.

“Well okay, I guess you’re probably either the best or worst person to tell anyway,” Frisk said as she once more wiped at her tears with the heel of her hand. “The dream always starts when I first fell into the Underground, I talk to Flowey like normal and then Mom comes and takes me to the Ruins. Only in the dream I’m not controlling my body something else is, and that something isn’t very nice. Every time we run into a monster we… kill it. And it’s horrible, they didn’t do anything to us so why would we want to hurt them?”

Frisk was starting to cry again so Sans put a comforting hand on her shoulder, “It’s okay kid, it’s just a dream.” In truth though he didn’t like where this was going.

“You haven’t heard the worst part yet, I… I also kill Mom. And then everyone in Snowdin too, including Papyrus. I go through all of the Underground killing everyone, even going out of my way to do it. Until I reach you. Where because I’ve been such a horrible person you… you break your promise to Mom and try to stop me. And then no matter how many times you kill me I always reload until eventually…”

Sans had always wondered if Frisk knew anything about the other timeline. Apparently she did and experienced it the same way he did, through realistic nightmares. “None of those things actually happened kid, you never killed anyone,” he assured her. “Now uh, how does the dream normally end?”

After taking a few deep breaths Frisk continued, “After you’re… dead I… I move on to the throne room to meet Asgore, I don’t even give him a chance to defend himself I just kill him. And then Flowey pops up to beg for mercy but I kill him too. And then the thing controlling me speaks to me. Her name is Chara and she wants to erase the world, when I tell her ‘no’ she kills me too. And then I finally wake up.”

“Tell me kid, how long ago did you start having this dream? And how often do you have it?” Sans asked.

“I started having the dream shortly after we came out of the Underground. And I don’t have it every night but I do have it way more often than I would like,” Frisk sniffed. “I never told anyone because what would they think if they knew I dreamed about killing them and everyone else. What must you think of me now that you know? You must hate me.”

“Ah kid, come on now I don’t hate you. It’s a dream, you don’t have any control over what you do in it.”

“But why would I dream about killing everyone I love if I’m not deep down inside a horrible person? What if this means I’m going to grow up to be some kind of serial killer or something? Or what if Chara’s real and one day she’s going to make me kill everyone? Sans I don’t want to hurt anyone,” Frisk said as she began sobbing into her hands again.

Sans was probably the worst person to comfort a crying child, Toriel or Papyrus would’ve been able to do a much better job, heck even Undyne or Alphys could’ve done better than him. But he was the only one here right now. So he did what he thought Toriel would’ve done, he picked her up cradling her in his arms. She immediately latched onto his jacket and started sobbing against his chest.

“Shh, it’s okay kid, you’re not going to hurt anyone,” Sans murmured quietly to her while waiting for her to cry herself out.

It was several minutes before she finally calmed down enough to speak, “But Sans why would I have almost the exact same dream over and over again like that if there wasn’t something horribly wrong with me? Why would I ever dream about killing everyone I love like that if some deep hidden sick part of me didn’t want to? And I don’t want to hurt anyone but I’ve had the dream so many times now I’m beginning to think that there has to be something wrong with me.”

Sans mentally debated with himself about whether or not he should tell Frisk about his own nightmares and what he knew about the other timelines. On one hand who knew how she’d react to knowing her dreams were technically real but on the other she would at least know she wasn’t crazy.

“Okay look kid,” Sans said placing her back on the bed beside him, “Those dreams aren’t from your head, you’re not crazy and they don’t mean you’re going to kill anybody.”

“But then why do I dream about it in almost the exact same way over and over again? And why does it feel so real?”

“Because for whatever reason you’re dreaming about another timeline, a timeline where you’re controlled by that Chara person you mentioned,” Sans replied.

“Wait, if I’m dreaming about another timeline does that mean that I really do all those horrible things?”

“You don’t, the Frisk from that timeline does.”

“But that still means…” the look of abject horror that came across Frisk’s face made Sans regret wording it like that. “It’s real, those things really happen. Even if it’s not really me doing them, it’s still real. But Sans, how do you know about this?”

“I dream about that timeline too sometimes,” Sans said not really thinking about how that would make her feel until after he’d said it.

“You really dream about me doing all those horrible things?” Frisk asked as she started to cry again. “About me killing poor Papyrus and then later you? How can you still like me after that?”

“Come on now kid don’t cry, it’s not you doing any of that,” Sans said. Damn, he’d really messed this up bad. Why’d he have to tell her the truth? Why couldn’t he have come up with some lie that would have made her feel better instead?

“Sans, I would _never_ do that to you or Uncle Pap or anyone,” Frisk said as she clutched at Sans’ coat sleeve as she started sobbing uncontrollably.

“Yeah kid, I know,” Sans said as he picked her up again. After several minutes of sobbing in his arms Frisk finally started to calm back down.

“Come kid let’s go get a snack from the kitchen.” Sans said as he carried her to the kitchen. He placed her on the counter then levitated the cookie jar down from the top of the fridge and handed it to her.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you do that before,” Frisk sniffed as she pulled out a cookie. “Or at least not outside of my dreams.”

Sans flinched as he thought of just how he used that magic in those dreams of theirs. But she didn’t seem to be thinking about that as she wiped at her tear streaked face with one hand and ate a cookie with the other.

“Hey kid, why did the cookie go see a doctor?”

“I don’t know, why?” Frisk asked.

“Because he was feeling crummy,” Sans said.

Frisk’s face lit up as she smiled at him, “Another one, tell me another joke,” she said.

“Okay, I can do another,” Sans said glad he could make her feel better again.

After several minutes of really bad jokes and puns that would’ve sent Papyrus into a rage Frisk was basically back to normal despite the red puffiness around her eyes from her earlier tears. But at least she was smiling and happy again.

“Hey kid you ready to head back to bed?” Sans asked.

“Hmmm no, I don’t want to go back to bed,” Frisk replied. “I would just have to wake up for school in like an hour, so there’s no point.”

Looking at the clock Sans it was almost 5:00, Frisk’s school started at 7:00. So she would probably normally get up at around 6:00, not that he was normally up that early so he didn’t know for sure. But he figured she had a point.

“Let’s just hang out and watch T.V. instead,” Frisk said as she dropped off the counter.


	2. Questions

About an hour later Frisk heard the sound of Toriel getting up and moving around the house. She would be checking Frisk’s room shortly no doubt.

Sans had fallen asleep on the couch next to her but Frisk was still glad for his comforting presence. She still couldn’t get over what he had told her about her dreams, they were real and all those awful things actually happened in that other timeline. But at least she now knew that she wasn’t crazy, that she wasn’t one day going to want to hurt her family.

“Frisk sweetie, where are you?” Toriel called softy from down the hall.

“I’m here Mom,” Frisk replied as she stood up on the couch so her mother could see her.

“Oh, my child what you doing up and out of bed this early?” Toriel said as she walked over. “And why is Sans out bed this early too?”

“I had a nightmare and Sans made me feel better, and then he fell asleep on the couch,” Frisk said as she held up her arms so Toriel would pick her up.

“What was this nightmare about?” Toriel asked quietly as she carried Frisk the short distance back to the kitchen.

“I don’t remember,” Frisk lied. She didn’t like lying to her mom but she didn’t want her or anyone else knowing about her nightmares. How could she ever tell her mother about the dreams where she killed everyone, especially now that she knew that they were real?

In truth Sans was the only person she was comfortable with knowing about it. She didn’t really know why since Sans was in a way the one she wronged the most in those dreams, not to mention all the deaths suffered at his hands. But maybe that was why, Frisk always felt that after all the things Chara made her do in those dreams everything Sans did to stop her was both justified and deserved.

“Well I guess since you’re up anyway you want to help me make breakfast?” Toriel said interrupting her thoughts.

Frisk nodded enthusiastically, she loved helping her mom, Papyrus and occasionally Undyne whenever they cooked. Even though she had to stand on a stool to comfortably reach the counter top.

Shortly after they’d finished making enough pancakes for everyone Papyrus came out from his room. “Good morning Uncle Pap,” Frisk cheerily greeted him. She had started calling him ‘uncle’ a couple weeks ago partly because she knew it would make him happy and because she really had started to think of him like an uncle.

“Good morning to you too little human,” Papyrus replied.

Frisk wondered if Papyrus had nightmares too like she and Sans did. Or if maybe everyone did and just never talked about it. She decided she’d ask Sans about it later when they were alone.

“Frisk go wake up Sans, tell him to stop being such a _lazybones_ and come to breakfast,” Toriel said.

“Okay,” Frisk said before running back into the living room where Sans was still napping on the couch. “Wake up Sans, me and Mom made pancakes for breakfast,” she said tugging on his sleeve.

“Huh what?” Sans said as he started awake. “Oh hey kiddo, what’s up?”

“Breakfast, me and Mom made pancakes,” Frisk said before skipping back into the kitchen.

“So Sans,” Toriel said as they sat around the kitchen table, “Frisk told me she had a nightmare and that you made her feel better.”

“Yeah, well…” Sans shrugged.

“What? Little Frisk had a nightmare?” Papyrus exclaimed. “Don’t worry I, the Great Papyrus, can provide you with a night-light if you need one.”

“It’s fine Uncle Pap, I don’t need a night-light. Sans made me feel better so I’m fine now,” Frisk assured him.

“Well okay, but if you ever change your mind I’ve got several and I’d be glad to lend you one,” Papyrus said.

After breakfast Toriel sent Frisk to her room so she could get dressed and ready for school. Frisk was in the 2nd grade and attended the school Toriel ran for both human and monster students alike. The school had just opened up a week and a half ago so it was still pretty new but despite that it was already full of students. It was the only school available to monster kids on the surface and a lot of the more progressive parents wanted their children to be taught in such a diverse environment.

They all had jobs even Frisk, she was ambassador for the monsters, which was a lot of responsibility for such a young child but she didn’t mind, she had her friends and family to help her. Toriel was principle of her school while Papyrus was the gym teacher. Asgore worked as the school’s librarian and gardener even though he was still officially king of the monsters. Mettaton obviously was a famous popstar by now and as a result already had his own T.V. show. Undyne worked as law enforcement while Alphys worked as head scientist at a lab. And Sans surprisingly worked as a scientist with her, or at least he was supposed to. From what Frisk had heard he rarely ever showed up and when he did, he mostly lazed around and slept or bothered everyone with his jokes. Frisk guessed the only reason Sans hadn’t been fired yet was because Alphys was too scared to do it.

Frisk had once asked Alphys why Sans had been hired for such a job in the first place. Alphys had told her that Sans had once worked as a scientist a long time ago and was really good at it but had stopped for some unknown reason. When Frisk had asked Sans about this he had brushed it off as unimportant and casually changed the subject.

“Frisk sweetie you ready for school?” Toriel said as she opened the door to Frisk’s room.

“Yes,” Frisk replied as adjusted her backpack and skipped out to join Toriel and Papyrus as they all went to the school together. “See you later Sans,” she called as they made their way out.

“Yeah, see ya kid,” Sans called back at her before she closed the door.

During class Frisk was distracted by thoughts of her nightmares. She remembered that Asriel had mentioned a Chara and that Chara had been the first human to fall into the Underground. Frisk wondered if the Chara from her dreams was the same Chara that had been Asriel’s friend. Before she had always assumed that that was where her mind pulled the name from, but if her dreams were real then Chara must be too.

Frisk decided she needed to do something about her nightmares, especially if they were real. She had no idea what she could do about it right now but was determined to do something. She figured she might need someone else’s help though, Sans was probably the most logical person to ask.

 

***

 

After everyone else had left Sans had the house entirely to himself. He knew he should really head to work but he rarely had the energy or willpower to do so. But he wasn’t in the mood to be alone today so maybe he would go anyway, at some point.

As he reclined back on the couch he reflected back on what he had learned last night. Frisk was dreaming of the other timeline too for some reason, but in her dreams she was controlled by someone named Chara. It was a name he recognized from somewhere but couldn’t quite place it. It bothered him that he couldn’t remember where he’d heard it, he was normally pretty good about stuff like that, so it must have been from a very long time ago. He knew he should look into it more but wasn’t sure where to start other than asking Frisk, and she might not want to talk about it.

The house was way too quiet when no one was there, it was depressing. Deciding that sitting around and being lonely was a poor way to spend the day Sans forced himself up and got ready to head out to work. Which mostly just involved putting on his slippers and grabbing his science coat from his closest. A quick shortcut had him walking through the lab doors a few seconds later.

“Oh hey Sans, good of you to actually show up for once,” Alphys greeted him.

“Hey Alphys, does the name ‘Chara’ mean anything to you?” he asked.

“Hmmm no, I don’t think so,” Alphys replied. “Why?”

“No real reason,” Sans said as he pulled up a chair to one of the computers. A quick internet search also revealed nothing new about this Chara person, not surprising really. He’d have to ask Frisk about it later and just hope talking about it wouldn't upset her.

 

***

 

Later that day when Frisk returned from school Sans was still out, presumably at work for once. Frisk was disappointed, she wanted to ask him about stuff but she guessed it would have to wait. So instead she decided to do her homework for the day.

“Uncle Pap, you wanna help me with my homework?” Frisk asked. She didn’t really need help but she usually liked working on it with someone else anyway. Normally she preferred Sans but he wasn’t here right now. In fact the only person here right now was Papyrus because Toriel, being the school principle always had to stay a few hours extra at the school.

“Of course, the Great Papyrus will gladly help you with your homework,” he said.

Her homework really wasn’t that hard but she pretended to have some trouble with it anyway so that Papyrus would feel good about being able to help her. As a result it took a bit longer than it usually did but not long enough for Sans to have come back yet.

“Say Uncle Pap, do you ever have nightmares sometimes?” she asked suddenly after they’d finished.

“Well no actually I don’t think I have nightmares very often,” Papyrus replied. “Why? Is your nightmare from last night still bothering you?”

“No, I was just curious that’s all.” Frisk shrugged.

As Frisk was about to ask another question the front door suddenly opened and Sans walked in.

“Hey guys,” he greeted them with a wave of his hand as he sat on the couch next to them.

“I’m impressed Sans, you actually managed to not be lazy for once and went to work today,” Papyrus said.

“Yep, and I got a ton of work done too, a skele- _ton_ ,” Sans replied.

“How often are you going to make that terrible pun?” Papyrus asked.

“Until it’s not _pun-_ ny anymore.”

“It stopped being funny a long time ago,” Papyrus complained.

“I think your jokes are funny,” Frisk said. “In fact I think they’re _sans-_ sational.” She had learned that word recently and had been eagerly awaiting the perfect opportunity to make that pun out of it.

“Heh, good one kid,” Sans’ praise made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

“I swear Sans you and Toriel are a horrible influence on her,” Papyrus said.

Before either of them could make another joke to annoy Papyrus the front door opened again as Toriel walked in. “Frisk did you do your homework yet?” she asked after everyone had exchanged greetings.

“Yeah, Uncle Pap helped me,” Frisk replied.

“All right then, you wanna help me cook supper?”

“Ooh, can I help too?” Papyrus asked.

“Sure of course you can,” Toriel replied with a smile.

“I’ll help you guys in moment,” Frisk said so she could take this opportunity to talk to Sans. Once they had both gone to the kitchen she turned to him, “I need to ask you something. Are we the only ones who dream about that other timeline or whatever?”

“As far as I’m aware yeah,” Sans replied.

“Okay so why do we dream about it?” Frisk asked.

“I know why I do, but not why you would,” Sans said.

“Okay so why do _you_ dream about it?”

“It’s a long boring story that we don’t really have time for right now,” Sans said. “Instead you can tell me if you know any more about that Chara person you said possessed you in your dreams.”

Annoyed that Sans hadn’t answered her question Frisk briefly considered not answering him but decided to tell him anyway in the hopes that he might share more information with her too. So she told him what little she knew about Chara from what she’d heard from Asriel and what she’d found in the True Lab.

“I guess that explains where I’ve heard that name before,” Sans said thoughtfully.

“Another thing I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while now is, how much do you actually know about my ability to Save and Reset? And why are you the only one who seems to know about it?” Frisk had been meaning to ask that for a long time now but had always been too scared to.

“I just know about it,” Sans replied avoiding the question. “Now shouldn’t you go help Pap and Tori in the kitchen?”

“Yeah, but you know I’ll never Reset this, right?”

“Actually that’s really good to know kid,” Sans said after a short pause.

With that Frisk ran into the kitchen to help her adoptive mom and uncle cook supper. She was disappointed that Sans hadn’t answered any of her questions but she was determined to try again another day.


	3. Sleepless Nights

That night after Toriel had tucked her in for the night Frisk lay in bed staring up at the ceiling. She didn’t want to go to sleep in case she had the dream about Chara again. Now that she knew that dream was real she couldn’t bear the thought of having it anymore. She didn’t want to see everyone she knew and loved turned to dust at her hands, it was too much for her.

So once she was sure everyone else was in bed she left her room and made her way back to the living room. She knew it was impractical to not sleep but even the thought of having the dream about Chara made her feel ill. She would have to figure something else out eventually but for now she felt that she wouldn’t be able fall asleep even if she tried so might as well watch some late night television.

She was still feeling pretty good about this decision even in the morning when she had run back into her room to pretend to be asleep so Toriel wouldn’t catch her when she went in to check on her.

No, it wasn’t until she got to school that her sleepless night caught up with her. She had to struggle to keep her eyes open and kept falling asleep in class and the teacher had to wake her up every few minutes. When asked why she was so tired today Frisk lied and said she was a bit ill earning her a trip to the nurse’s office. Something she almost immediately regretted for as soon as Toriel heard of it she hurried down.

“Frisk are you okay? I heard you were sick,” she said as she thoroughly examined Frisk.

“I’m fine Mom, I’m just not feeling super well that’s all,” Frisk assured her.

“Is she going to be okay? What’s wrong with her?” Toriel asked turning to the school nurse. The school had two nurses, one for monster students and one for human students. This one was obviously the one for humans.

“She’ll be fine, there’s nothing really wrong with her that I can tell,” the nurse assured Toriel. “It might just be a slight head cold or something. She probably just needs a nap.”

“A nap would nice,” Frisk mumbled.

“Want me to take you home sweetie?” Toriel asked.

“No, I can just take a short nap here and then go back to class,” Frisk said wishing she hadn’t made her mother worry so much.

“Okay, all right, if anything changes call me,” Toriel instructed the nurse before heading back to her job.

Frisk was fully intent on taking that nap up until she remembered the reason she’d skipped sleeping in the first place. She couldn’t face that, not ever again. But she’d have to sleep eventually, not right now though.

So she took the half hour she was supposed to be napping and instead set herself up to pretend to not to be tired anymore. She knew she wouldn’t be able to fake it forever but until she found a way for her not to have nightmares anymore it would have to do.

For the rest of the school day it went pretty well. She didn’t have as much energy as she usually did but she also didn’t fall asleep in the middle of class anymore so no one commented on it. On the way back home Toriel was still fussing over her and of course Papyrus did too once he learned she wasn’t feeling well. She did her best to assure them she was perfectly fine now but that didn’t stop them especially since she couldn’t completely hide how tired she was.

“Why are you home so early Tori?” Sans asked when they all walked in the door together.

“Frisk isn’t feeling well so I’m letting Asgore handle the after school stuff today, hopefully he doesn’t mess anything up,” Toriel replied. “Now Frisk you wanna go lay down in your room for a little while?”

“No Mom, I’m fine,” Frisk said trying not to let any of her annoyance into her voice.

“Well okay, but if you start to feel any worse tell me and we can call a doctor,” Toriel said.

“Mom I don’t need a doctor, I’m just not feeling well it’s not going to kill me.”

“I know but… just tell me if you start feeling any worse.”

Frisk hated that she was making Toriel worry so much but right now she was too tired to think of any way to reassure her. So instead she pulled out her homework for the day, she really didn’t want to do it right now but putting it off was probably a bad idea.

“Sans can you help me with my homework?” she asked him.

“Sure kid,” Sans said as she sat down on the couch next to him.

The words seemed to swim on the page in front her as he stared down at it. She couldn’t focus on it and wanted nothing more than to close her eyes for a little while, but was determined to at least finish this first.

“You okay kid?” Sans asked. “You don’t look super swell right now. Are you sure you don’t want to go lay down?”

“I’m fine, just… just a little tired, that’s all,” she said as she tried to stifle a yawn.

“Did you get any sleep at all last night?” Sans asked.

Frisk tried to think of some joke or pun she could answer him with but her mind came up blank. “A little bit,” she lied, she didn’t want him knowing she had intentionally stayed up all night last night.

“Is this about those nightmares you’ve been having?” Sans asked her.

“No… I just…” Frisk trailed off.

“Look just take a nap kid, you can do your homework later,” Sans said as he gently took the homework folder out of her hands, placing it on the coffee table.

“Okay,” Frisk mumbled as her head lolled to the side and she fell asleep.

 

***

 

Sans briefly considered carrying Frisk to her room but decided against it. She might wake up if he picked her up and napping on the couch wasn’t going to hurt her. Besides he was too lazy to get up right now anyway.

“Is Frisk okay?” Toriel asked worriedly when she walked back into the room.

“She’s fine,” Sans assured her. “She’s taking a nap, so don’t wake her.”

“Are you sure? Is she running a fever? Maybe I should call a doctor.”

“She’s fine Tori, she just didn’t get much sleep last night,” Sans replied. “Why are you so worried anyway?”

“A long time ago I lost a child to an illness that I couldn’t do anything about and I don’t want that to happen again,” Toriel replied sadly.

“Oh,” Sans couldn’t think of anything to say to that.

“Is little Frisk all right?” Papyrus asked as he walked into the room.

“Yeah she’s okay I think,” Toriel replied. “But’s she’s sleeping so we should probably be quiet.

But Frisk hadn’t been sleeping long before Undyne and Alphys came over.

“We heard the kid’s sick,” Undyne said.

“Yeah is she okay?” Alphys asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Frisk mumbled as she had apparently been woken up by them.

Sans probably should’ve brought her to her bed after all. But it was too late now, the kid was already awake again and probably wouldn’t want to go back to sleep anytime soon.

“How’d you guys know I was sick?” Frisk asked.

“Tori made a post about it a few hours ago,” Undyne replied.

“Well I’m fine now, so if everyone could stop worrying about it that would be great,” Frisk said yawning again.

“Well since we’re here anyway you wanna watch some anime with us?” Undyne said pulling out a DVD that was presumably an anime of some sort.

“Okay,” Frisk said enthusiastically.

With a sigh Sans decided to just take a nap. He wasn’t into anime the way they were but was too lazy to move off the couch.

***

 

Frisk watched anime with them for almost the rest of the day. She never did get her homework done but it didn’t really matter all that much anyway.

Toriel insisted on putting her to bed early that night. But as soon as she left the room Frisk got up out of bed and began pacing. She had to think of a way to _not_ have that nightmare anymore before she could get any real sleep.

She waited until she was sure everyone else was in bed before leaving her room. The first thing she decided to do was her homework, but not on the couch it was too soft and comfortable and might lure her into sleep. So she did it sitting at the kitchen table instead. It took a while because she still wasn’t thinking clearly but she got it done.

At around midnight Frisk’s resolve started weakening. She didn’t think she’d ever been this tired before and wanted desperately to sleep, but she couldn’t dream about Chara ever again. But maybe she could take a short nap, just for a bit.

She rested her head on the kitchen table in front of her and was soon fast asleep. But she was woken up a short amount of time later when she heard the sound of someone coming into the kitchen. Jerking her head up she saw it was Sans.

“Hey Sans, how’s it going?” she asked trying to sound casual.

“Kid what are you doing out bed in the middle of the night like this?” he asked.

“Um, you know just stuff,” she said. “Why are _you_ out of bed in the middle of the night?”

“Also just stuff,” he replied. “Look kid you need to sleep, staying up two nights in a row isn’t good.”

“But I can’t, what if I have the dream about Chara again?”

“That’s just a dream you’re going to have to learn to live with. Now please just go to bed.”

“Hmmm, no,” Frisk said. “I can’t go to sleep until I figure out some way to stop the things in those dreams from happening. But I don’t know how, since it’s in another timeline or whatever. Do you think Alphys might be able to make a thing that would let us stop Chara? Like in some of those anime we watched earlier today.”

“I don’t know kid, but you’re going to bed rather you like it or not,” Sans said.

“You can’t make me,” Frisk said with determination.

“We’ll see about that,” Sans said as he made his way over to her.

Frisk was not expecting it when he suddenly picked her up and began carrying her towards her room. She struggled and tried to squirm out of his arms but couldn’t.

“No,” she whined as she tightly grabbed the doorframe leading to her room.

“Are we really do this right now kid?” Sans asked as he pulled on her but she determinedly hung onto the doorframe with all her might. With a sigh Sans adjusted his hold on her so that he could use one hand to pry her fingers off the doorframe.

Frisk tried to maintain her grip but her small child hands were too weak and she was soon forced to let go. “But Dad…” she started to protest but froze when she realized what she’d just called him. Sans was what she always imagined a father would be like, much like Toriel was what she imagined a mother would be like. But she wasn’t sure if he would be okay with being called that, especially not if he really had the same nightmares about Chara that she did.

After and awkward pause Sans placed her on her bed, “It’s time to go to sleep now,” he said.

“Is it… is it okay with you if I call you ‘Dad’?” Frisk asked shyly. “It just you’re what I always imagined having a dad would be like. But like it’s okay if you don’t want me calling you that.”

“Sure kid, you can call me ‘Dad’ if you want to,” Sans said with a smile. “Now are you going to fall asleep on your own or do I have to stay here and make sure you do?”

“But Dad, what if I dream about Chara again? I don’t wanna see myself kill everyone I love,” Frisk said.

“There’s nothing you can do about that dream, and skipping sleep isn’t going to help anything,” Sans said.

“Oh okay, I’ll go to sleep,” Frisk said. She was intending that as soon as he left she would get out of bed again.

“Okay, but how ‘bout I read you a bed time story to make sure you do,” he said giving her a sly wink. He pulled out one of the children’s book on the bookshelf in her room. As he started reading it Frisk knew she wouldn’t be able to stay awake for very long. She tried anyway though, but between the warm comfy bed and Sans’ soothing voice she couldn’t fight the pull of sleep for very long.

***

 

As soon as he was completely sure that Frisk was asleep Sans gently closed the book placing it back on the self. He then quietly snuck out and back into his own room.

Frisk thought of him like a father, which made him feel both extremely proud and nervous as the same. He could barely take care of himself let alone a young child. Heck if it wasn’t for Papyrus, he probably would’ve ended up homeless on more than one occasion.

Yeah it probably would’ve been better if Frisk had looked to Papyrus to be her adoptive father. Papyrus was super cool and Sans would’ve been nothing without him. But it was too late for any of that now, Sans would just have to do everything he could for the kid.


End file.
